The blog of the design, construction, and launching of the vessels "The Floating Empire" and "Tesla's Revenge", both floating tinyhomes made from recycled or repurposed materials.

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Saturday, February 27, 2016

The Days of Wine and Aspirin

Two things I need right now......

....or, The Great Makeover Begins.

Sorry we haven't posted much of late, but we've begun our great makeover, and I thought I would share a few pictures with you. This is becoming a huge remake of the interior of Floating Empire, and I think it's going to make life aboard a lot more pleasant.

First of all, we're attacking the area below the galley, mostly deadspace previously, to create some more useful storage.

We also disassembled the head surround for the moment and we'll be moving some of the studio stuff from aft to amidships.

Down it comes, at least for the moment.

Freeing up an unaccustomed view of the studio.

We also, in the process, got the fridge up off the floor and installed, mercifully, at eye level.

Here's the midships bulkhead as it was.

And now. . . .Why didn't we do this two years ago, someone tell me again?

The biggest changes were the removal of the forward kingposts in exchange for a reinforced beam and brace, which freed up a good three feet of moving room in the Galley area.

Looking forward, here's the kingposts and bookcase coming down.

And here's the wife unit sweeping in the same space.

Note the sistered post and angled brace.

Looking Aft. LOTS more room. The Cat approves.

Okay, and the settee, did I mention we built a settee? Of course, first we had to move the forward ladder and plug the ladder well.

Yes, I know it's blocking the breakfront. That'll be moving.

Basic box of the structure. Note the post to the left.

Vital Cat testing of the new structure.

Equally (almost) vital web surfing test.

And, of course, the all important wine and beer test.

Our first dinner at the table was a wonderful 18th century fish dish we gleaned from the wonderful folks over at Jas Townsend and Son's Youtube site, which we highly recommend (though we did use Basa instead of Trout). Really yummy. You should try this.

Fish, white wine, butter. . . .did I mention white wine?

There's still tons to do, and we haven't even begun to address the studio aft (we'll be moving the head to the stern) and there's lots of staining and upholstery to take care of. Still, we've made a major start (and I suspect I'll be paying for it in the morning), but tonight there's great food and good wine and a much more pleasant and open space. We'll still be hitting you guys up for help when when start addressing the floatation and the new exterior porch, but for right now, I'm happy.

thud

In other news, I can tell we're moving into summer. For one thing, we're starting to get massively high spring tides again. Here's a lovely shot of the docks UNDER water the other evening.

I will not be taking a stroll on the docks this evening.

We've also had a muskrat take up residence under our boat. I'm open to suggestions as to how to deal with this. The little guy is using our floatation as a platform to open clamshells. Magellan is more than fascinated.

If the muskrat is shucking clams on top of your flotation barrels, you could screen them off with galvanized screen. Galvanized is probably the best compromise for price and corrosion resistance. They would chew through plastic screen in no time. The mesh just has to be small enough that it can't get in between the wires. Come to think of it, galvanized chicken wire might be a good way to go.